Prompt: “The way a message is delivered is often more important than the message itself.”
While the message itself is clearly very important, it is also very important for the person delivering the message to deliver in effectively in order to have the desired effect.
Message delivery in turn involves the choice of the targeted audience, the way it is communicated, and the period in time during which it is delivered. The deliverer has to get all these three aspects right in order to have the desired effect. Like an arrow that is meant for a target, it is not only important to have the right intentions to shoot, but to pick the relevant target, to use the right kind of arrowhead, have the right kind of skills, and to shoot at the right time so as to effectively hit the target intended.
It is important for the message deliverer to pick the right target audience. Preaching to the choir is often useless and may not be effective use of the message. For example, scientists may be better off targeting policy makers instead of fellow scientists if they are trying to influence policy using science. Even here it might be very important to pick the correct policy makers as well who have the most influence. Similarly, targeting messages of not drinking and driving, at elder people who don't drink and drive might be useless.
Having picked the targeted audience, it is very important for the message deliverer to also pick the right means of delivering the message. A message intended for the elderly, but delivered through a relatively young medium such as the internet might be quite ineffective in reaching the elder age group. Just as chosing the right medium is important, so too is the right kind of language used. An obvious form of this is picking the right linguistic language. Speaking in french to people speaking mandarin might not have the intended effect. Similarly, speaking in highly technical or scientific jargon to people in the art or music community might be ineffective and could among other things leave the audience bored or overwhelmed.
The last but certainly not the least important aspect to consider is the period in time at which the message is delivered. It is probably useless for a grandfather to try and teach Sheakespeare or calculus to a toddler. All he has to do is wait until the toddler becomes a teenager and both Shakespeare and calculus might be actively imbued by the grandchild. Similarly, certain ideas and thoughts by great thinkers are usually ahead of the time. While Galileo may have been persecuted for his thoughts owing to the period and society in which he lived, he is highly regarded in the current century. Even in the case where the message might appear to be more important than the delivery such as in ancient literature or treatises by thinkers, sometimes it might not really be the case. The messages although historically important, might lose their relevance in the period of time they are discovered.
Having said that the delivery of the message is very important, it is also important to consider bad messages delivered effectively. While it might appear that most bad messages cannot be effective, marketing companies often by sheer delivery are able to deliver bad messages. The marketing campaigns that sold cigarettes are a powerful case in point. Even though cigarettes are bad for ones health and for people around, it managed to sell many millions of them.
Thus one can see from the various aspects involved in the delivery of the message that they are more important than the message that is being delivered. As seen in numerous instances, a message might lose its meaning if its delivery is not paid attention to. As in the case of tobacco advertising, even a bad message can be effective. In summary, an effective message is one that is not only great in content, but also delivered to the right audience, in the right language and the right time.
